


Fragile

by Lanceeselhombre



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Clingy!keith, Crying, Cuddling, Gen, Implied Brain Damage, Implied/Referenced Torture, Mentions of Panic Attacks, Sleep, Sleep Deprivation, Starvation, insecure!keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-30 21:06:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13960023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lanceeselhombre/pseuds/Lanceeselhombre
Summary: Keith comes back more fragile than he left.





	Fragile

Keith was laying calmly on his bed, eyes finally closed and body finally relaxed after an hour or so of him clinging to Hunk. Hunk, for his part, let the smaller paladin cling, let him do whatever he needed to in order to sleep, because he knew he really needed it. Like, really really needed it.

The poor thing hadn’t slept well, if at all, in months, and was practically on his deathbed because his body was losing its ability to function without some much needed rest. But even back in the castle, where Keith was safe and sound, smothered in warm blankets in the dark and quiet, sleep didn’t come easily. Not after everything he’d been through.

The team hadn’t pieced together everything yet. They knew there was electricity. Isolation. Starvation. Enhanced interrogation for information about Voltron. But that was about it.

And Keith had shouldered all that pain, and still survived until his teammates came to save him. But that didn’t mean it hadn’t affected him, because the frail, frightened teen curled into his side was a testimony to the fact that it did.

Keith was a toothpick now; he weighed nothing compared to before. He had quite a few bruises and wounds that they had bandaged up, but they couldn’t put him in a pod to heal them yet; he wouldn’t wake up if he didn’t get some sleep and food first. He might even have a bit of brain damage from extreme sleep deprivation, but they couldn’t know until he’d recovered a little and his brain began functioning normally again.

Probably the worst out of everything was how insecure Keith’s capture had left him. The team figured that the majority of the torture occurred while he was isolated somewhere, because he panicked whenever there wasn’t someone else in the room with him. He couldn’t comprehend that the pain was over and that he was safe. He was too tired.

Which led to the clinging, and everyone let him. Anything to make him comfortable and get him to sleep.

Hunk gently pulled Keith’s arms from around his thigh, instead placing them in front of his chest on the bed. He then carefully moved to stand, careful to make no noise or jostle the sleeping teen, knowing that if he woke up he would lose his chance to slip away. He’d been wanting to go grab something to eat for awhile now- he hadn’t been able to because it was his day to watch Keith and he’d been trying to get him back to sleep after the little he’d managed to eat for dinner- and now that he was asleep he could get something quick and hopefully run back to his room before Keith woke up in a panic.

Once he felt certain the boy wouldn’t wake up, he quietly palmed his pager and quickly tip-toed out the door, allowing it to close behind him before the light of the hallway could disturb his sleeping friend. From there he clipped the pager onto his hip and made his way to the kitchen, breathing a sigh of relief and letting himself relax.

He’d been tense all day, worriedly fussing over Keith in the morning while Shiro helped him learn how take care of him, and just being worried afterwards when he’d been left by himself with the teen. He was the anxious type; he couldn’t help but worry that he might trigger his friend accidentally or not be able to get him to sleep or that he wouldn’t eat or he might have a panic attack or-

The yellow paladin took in a deep breath and sighed. He should stop trying to give himself a panic attack. He couldn’t help anyone much like that, could he? Keith would be okay. He knew everyone else was just a call away- hence the pager he had with him- and together they would figure it out if something happened. They always did.

The kitchen was surprisingly not empty when he arrived. Lance was there already, working at the counter and packing up food for later- mostly likely the leftovers from dinner. The Cuban perked and turned to look at his friend as he entered, greeting him with a happy smile and a wave.

“Hey Hunk. Escaped for food?” He guessed, already opening a cabinet to begin making Hunk a plate of the food he was putting away. It was an easy guess; so far one of the only reasons any of them slipped away from Keith was for food- he hadn’t been back long enough for them to be confident leaving him for longer. Especially with his insecurity as bad as it was. “I made some decent alien sushi rolls.” He picked out five of the rolls and placed them on the plate, handing it to his best friend as he walked over.

Hunk sighed a small laugh as he took the offered food, leaning his lower back into the counter with a nod. “Yeah, thanks man. I haven’t eaten since this morning.” He said as he popped a roll in his mouth, closing his eyes contently at the combination of flavors. Since then he’d been trying to feed Keith his own meals, coaxing the teen into stomaching runny soup and protein shakes, and trying keeping him generally comfortable. Which was not an easy feat at the moment, he would like to add.

Poor Keith had gone so long without food that his stomach tried to reject anything but water at first. It took several tiny portions of the simplest food they could make for his stomach to settle into regular meals again, although he still wasn’t eating much. His inability to eat properly left him constantly hungry and sometimes nauseous, on top of the sleep deprivation and anxiety, and all those things combined made for one uncomfortable paladin.

Lance hummed sympathetically and went back to what he was doing. “I know how you feel bud. Yesterday Keith clung to me like a baby bat.” He chuckled. “I made the mistake of laying and cuddling with him before lunch and I couldn’t leave without waking him up.” Keith had latched onto him the second he was given the chance and refused to let go unless he was given a suitable substitute. Lance had been forced to skip out on lunch and dinner before someone came to check on him and watch Keith while he went to eat.

Hunk smiled at that. “Thanks for warning me.” He said gratefully before he took a bite of another sushi roll, happy he’d been told how to not get himself trapped for hours before it was his turn with their recovering friend.

“These are really good.” He mentioned, steering off topic to compliment his friend’s cooking skills. They almost rivaled his own, only being downplayed by the fact that Lance wasn’t as experienced with alien ingredients.

Lance grinned. “I’m happy my mediocre cooking pleases the chef.” He said, stepping back to playfully bow at the hip.

Hunk rolled his eyes. “There’s nothing mediocre about your cooking Lance.” He pointed out, taking another bite of his food to prove his point. “You make the best ropa vieja I've ever tasted.”

“Why thank you.”

“Mmhn.”

It was quiet while Hunk finished the rest of his food. He rinsed his plate and put it in what they dubbed the ‘alien dishwasher’ before he stretched with a groan. He should get back to Keith now, before he woke up again. His sleep was very fragmented at the moment, leaving him unable to sleep for more than a few hours at a time. He’d rather be there to calm him down than have to run back. Thanks to his pager he would know immediately if he did wake up, but Keith wasn’t so easily calmed if he woke up alone.

“I’m’a head back.” He said, stepping closer to Lance so he could wrap his arm around his shoulders in a side hug.

Lance returned the gesture, patting Hunk’s back as he pulled away. “Try to get some sleep, yeah? You’ll need it while you can get it.” He suggested wisely, remembering his own sleepless night and tired day after watching Keith. “You’ve got normal paladin duties tomorrow. We can’t have you hopping on the sleep deprivation train too.”

Hunk ruffled his hair, a little rough for the joke. He’d been making jokes about Keith’s condition once he heard he would recover with only a mental disorder or two at worst. Shiro and Hunk had discouraged it at first, but they had to admit the jokes were harmless and did lighten the worried mood that hung around the castle lately. So they didn’t do too much to stop him. “Yeah don’t remind me.”

Lance didn’t bother to smooth his hair down after Hunk made it stick up oddly. “Tell Keith I said hi.” He said, a little more serious as he went back to focusing on putting away the food. “I’ll bring you something in the morning to feed him before you switch with Allura.” Yes, even the Alteans were added to their scheduled rotations as Keith’s caretaker.

“Thanks man. See you then.” Hunk said, turning to leave the room. Now that he’d gotten what he’d left for, he was ready to go back and tend to Keith.

His walk was short and uneventful, his pager never going off in warning that his friend was awake, thankfully. He was thankful when he got back to his room and was greeted with quite instead of panicked crying, too.

Knowing he wouldn’t be able to get up until morning, he slipped into the connected bathroom to use it. That only took a minute, and then he was back in the bedroom again and getting ready for bed. He took off his boots and vest before he carefully pulled back the covers from the bed and laid down behind Keith, replacing and fixing the blankets afterwards.

Despite his efforts, he felt Keith startle awake against his chest, and before he could get out any words to make his presence known he was met with a confused, panicked, huffed cry. The teen frantically reached out, quickly feeling along the bed in front of him and touching the wall, trying to figure out where he was and orientate himself in the dark, trying to find another person to hold onto. He hadn’t realized Hunk was laying against his back.

Hunk let out an inaudible sigh as Keith let out another breathy wail, and he gently reached over his shoulders and found his hands, squeezing them gently in reassurance. “Hey Keith, it’s Hunk.” He whispered softly, making his presence known to the other.

He would be much more worried hearing Keith cry like that, terrified of an oncoming panic attack, if it weren’t for the fact that he knew it was only Keith calling for him. His vocal cords were currently useless, inflamed and irritated, probably from Keith screaming and crying himself hoarse in the Galra’s prison. Obviously, he couldn’t speak, but he could still cry, so that was how he communicated. If something was wrong, he flipped on the water works.

The red paladin squeezed his hands back tightly, then let go to feel up his arm and figure out where the rest of his was. Only then did he realize his friend was behind him, and quickly flipped over to grab and cling tensely at his shirt, his grip weak from exhaustion. More panicked huffs left his lips, sounding like choked, aborted puffs of air as he tried to ground himself with the knowledge that his teammate was there.

The first time he’d made that sound, everyone panicked. They thought he couldn’t breathe, so they quickly rushed him to medbay to find out what was happening. They thought he might be coming down with a sickness he caught suddenly, or that they’d missed something on his initial diagnostic when they brought him back to the ship.

But after a quick scan Coran assured them that Keith could breathe just fine. The only abnormal thing on the scan was that his adrenaline levels had skyrocketed.

Now, a few days later, they knew that this was the sound Keith made when he was anticipating an electric shock. They believed shocks were one of the main torture methods the Galra had used on him, so often that the teen expected it the second he woke up. In his fear he tensed up and began to breathe as if he was already being shocked, which didn’t exactly do him much good. But it was a great tell for his friends to react to.

“There’s no electricity Keith.” Hunk soothed, curling one arm around Keith’s back and running the other over his hair. “You’re okay.” He promised, his voice rising an octave in a gentle coo meant to calm the teen’s fear.

Keith continued to grab at him, not entirely calmed by his friend’s words, but he eventually relaxed out of the grabby stage and simply clung to the bigger teen’s frame. His huffs slowed down and became more rhythmic, like normal breathing, and Hunk praised him for the accomplishment.

“There we go.” The yellow paladin cooed again, gently tucking the blanket around him tighter, attempting to settle him down to sleep now that he’d calmed out of his stupor. He carefully adjusted Keith until he found a position where he knew the younger paladin could hear his heartbeat, then moved around a few pillows to support the curves of his body and make him as comfortable as possible.

At first, Hunk didn’t want to treat Keith in such a babyish, almost patronizing manner. He didn’t think he’d appreciate it one bit, and was almost certain he would get a few teeth knocked out for so much as a coo. But, surprisingly, Keith took to the soft tone of his voice quickly and found it quite calming, so Hunk kept doing it.

By the time Hunk had finished making his adjustments Keith’s huffing had completely stopped, and the teen laid quietly, content to cling and listen to his friend’s heart beat in his ear. Hunk laid just as quiet, watching happily as Keith dozed off in record time and became a dead weight at his side. 

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing.


End file.
